It may seem like a coincidence but does Liverpool’s performance has a relation with my bike situation?

Last mid-week, when Liverpool faltered 2-0 to Fiorentina in the UEFA Champions League, my bike failed to start rendering me bikeless, just as I wanted to return back to work from buying lunch in town, which I then took the cab back to office and barely paying for the fare with just a $5 note in my pocket — the fare was $4.80! Had the fare exceeded my pocket money, I’d have to ask the taxi to reverse then!

Anyway, my bike’s all fine now, despite dying and stuttering back then. I think fine is an understatement. It is ROARING again! Riding in the misty after-rain conditions earlier was simply superb, and I was on my way back from a client’s wedding to watch Liverpool’s game on tele, while I still can. (Singtel’s hijacked the EPL from SCV next year loh! Sobs. No more soccer on the big screen in the living room!)

Liverpool fared pretty decently well in the first half. Mascherano was back to his sniping ways while Gerrard was impeccable as usual. Unfortunately, Torres found the close attention of Chelsea’s defence too, um, close to his liking and was a restricted man throughout the 45 minutes. My thoughts, wow, Liverpool doing really great today! (My bike great, liverpool great, wow, a correlation!) I was pretty confident that Liverpool was going to come out all with all guns blazing in the second half.

Then Chelsea hit us with a sucker punch with the ever-so powerful Drogba crossing for Anelka to open the scoring. My thoughts, wow, Liverpool went behind but its okay, just a minor blip like what my bike experienced mid-week, and I was DARN confident that a late surge will see Liverpool bring home all 3 points.

Peppering the Chelsea end with long shots, mostly off-target, Liverpool looked like they were going to get the equaliser soon, but then Malouda had other ideas, ideas which didn’t quite agree with me, but I had to take it all in like a man. Again, Drogba powered his way into the penalty box before laying the ball into Malouda’s path for the game-and-set goal.

Ever felt that when you know you’ve got to do something but you’re holding back because for fear of failure? Well then, have you ever heard of the phrase ‘luck favours the bold’?

This is so especially true as shown in this early morning’s game between Manchester United and Sunderland. Trailing 2 goals to 1, Ferguson’s men threw caution to the wind and sieged Sunderland’s penalty box as if it was Apocalypse tomorrow. Too bad the Black Cats, the nickname for Sunderlandiansm or wahtever you call them, crumbled under the pressure with an unlucky own goal.

Yes, I’d say that it was an unlucky own goal, but I wouldn’t say that Manchester United was lucky. They created THAT own-goal. Would they have achieved it if half their players were half as motivated to play half as determined? Now that’s too many halves but I’m a firm believer that you make your own luck.

Like, why sit around all night long in a cyber cafe playing online games with people you barely know and then get hyper frustrated over a loss, if any? No, you’re not going to seal that $1000 direct sales deal by sitting in front of the monitor playing games. No, you’re not going to gain insight on how to close a sales, by wasting your time away like that.

Wow. Did I just hypothetically deduce how wasteful I’ve become, albeit indirectly and after giving a short discussion about Manchester United’s insanely obscene amount of luck that goes their way. Think about that 96th minute winner against Man City when they were given only 4 mins to understand why I pick on them specifically. And it’s not just because I’m a Liverpudlian. Okay, maybe it’s because I’m a Liverpudlian and my Dad’s a United fan. But Dad, I’ve nothing against you, in case you inexplicably reach upon these pages and are reading this. Love ya, but I ain’t got enough to sponsor your car insurance. Heh.

Anyway, yes, Manchester United may be claimed as lucky by some quarters, but boy do they work hard in achieving their results.

So final outcome of the game? Manchester United 2 – Luckless Black Cats (Sunderland) 2.

Wait a minute, maybe some people may argue that the Black Cats were lucky to score twice with the only 2 shots on goal that they had? Ahhhh, now that’s another story to tel…